Katherine Villyard's Blog, page 3

Link Roundup

I was interviewed by IndieReader! Get the answers to burning questions such as “what inspired you to write Immortal Gifts?” and “Do you have any advice for your fellow Indies?” (Of course I do! Shall I take them naming the post after my advice as an endorsement? ���� )

Immortal Gifts was reviewed by Donovan Literary Services. I feel like this reviewer really understood what I was trying to do with my book. Excellent!!!

I was also reviewed by Talisien Meets the Vampires. Very cool!

On February 4, Amazon had my book at #6 in Historical Fantasy!

Also, Barnes and Noble had my book listed as a bestseller!

SQUEE!!!

Elisa Hansen, aka The Maven of the Eventide, has a new video out and she has MY BOOK!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfz34...

By the way, she's AMAZING and you should subscribe to her YouTube channels!

How do Indie authors get reviews?

Short answer: How much money do you have? ����

Long answer: There are lots of places to get reviews for your book! even if you’re self-published.

Editorial reviews: There are some big names from the traditional publishing world that will happily review your book for, like $500. If you are made of money and willing to spend $500 for an ego massage and validation, go ahead! I got these for my first book and they made me feel really good about myself, but they didn’t sell books. That said, they’re not worthless, the editors are professionals who know how to turn a nice phrase and you can pull quotes out of the reviews for your marketing. Look for free options, or options that won’t break the bank. Fair disclosure: a lot of these places will review books for free if one of their reviewers WANTS to, but if you want to guarantee a review you need to grease a palm. Decide what you think is reasonable, and do not blow your entire marketing budget on this. (Say, decide one under $150 is reasonable, or one under $75 is reasonable.) These generally do not sell books on KDP and even if you have a brick and mortar strategy, don’t go broke doing this. I sent out a lot of free copies that didn’t get reviewed, FWIW.ARC Services. ARC stands for Advance Review Copy. The idea is you give people a free copy and they give you an honest review. This is standard practice in the traditional publishing world, and is totally legit (as long as it’s an honest review–no “I’ll give you a free copy if you give me five stars” business). Also, as the word “Advance” implies, these are more effective before launch. Here are the ones I used for Immortal Gifts:NetGalley: This is a big deal in the traditional publishing world. It’s also super pricey; find a co-op or writer’s organization to get a better deal. The people who download your book will be book bloggers, influencers, bookshop owners, librarians, the press, etc. They will review your book where they review your book (perhaps even privately to their library board). You pay your money and let them read. (Note: because they are accustomed to traditional publishing, NetGalley has a reputation for being harsh.)Edelweiss: This is very much like NetGalley, but not as famous or expensive. Looking at who downloaded my book the times I’ve used it, it’s libraries, booksellers, and things like Teen Vogue. Again, they will read your book and they will review it where they review it. You are not paying to appear in Teen Vogue (and if anyone offers you a chance to do that, run away.) Some of my NetGalley readers posted reviews on Goodreads; none of my Edelweiss readers appear to have done so (but this is not what I am paying Edelweiss for). Book Sirens: This is an ARC service that concentrates on getting reviews onto retailers. The people downloading your book will not be Teen Vogue or Rolling Stone, they will be passionate readers who read A LOT of books. If you really want Amazon reviews on launch day, this is where you go. Note: Your book has to be approved for Book Sirens, so please have a good cover and description and be professionally edited.Booksprout: This is an ARC service like Book Sirens, but they’re a monthly subscription and they’re focused on reviews on launch day. People get mixed results; I always get reviews from them but a friend of mine never does. Like Book Sirens, these are passionate readers who read A LOT and appreciate feeding their book habit with free new books.Email book bloggers (and bookstagrammers and booktubers and booktokers) and offer them free books in exchange for an honest review. This is FREE but also I admit this is kind of a slog and you are likely to get ignored. These folks get a lot of email from authors who want their book reviewed and your chances are better if you can make your book sound appealing and are professional and polite. I will say that I signed up for a service that claimed that they had a huge database of leads for this, when when I got there most of the sites hadn’t updated in over two years. Do your own google searches. Look for who reviewed your comps! You will likely have a low success rate with this, but again, it is FREE. Many authors recommend setting up a google form and collecting readers from their newsletter and social media. This apparently works great for some authors but Book Sirens worked a lot better for me. Perhaps because this is my debut novel? or maybe I didn’t flog it enough. ���� Either way, money cannot change hands or else it violates the retailers’ terms of service. (You pay for access to the pool of reviewers in the services mentioned in item 2; the reviewer does not receive anything but the book.)

ANYWAY. Yes. Get those reviews!

The Vampire and Jewish History

Some people are going to look at the title of this blog post and wince. I feel you. I do! If you don’t know about blood libel, well. Suffice to say that my book’s premise will be seen as, um, questionable in some circles. I mean, it’s not forbidden or anything, but people might question my credentials and motivations.

During the Dreyfus affair, it was common to depict Jews as vampires. This continued through Dracula and Nosferatu, and is still seen in antisemitic cartoons (which I will not be showing here).

Stoker and Murnau ensured that the idea of the vampire would be infected with antisemitism, and vice versa, for many years to come. Adolf Hitler in 1925���s Mein Kampf refers to Jewish people as vampires and bloodsuckers, and calls them ���that race which shuns the sunlight.��� In the 1931 Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, the titular vampire first appears wearing a large star of David necklace, identifying him as Jewish, and/or comparing the undead, blood-sucking monster to Jewish people. The vicious 1940 Nazi propaganda film The Eternal Jew, picks up numerous tropes from Nosferatu, according to scholar Eric Rentschler. That includes most vividly its equation of Jews with vermin and rats, and its charges of sexual predation (The Eternal Jew makes the outrageous false claim that Jewish people controlled 98% of prostitution worldwide.)

—Bloodsuckers: Vampires, Antisemitism And Nosferatu At 100

Yeah, Stoker was probably inspired in his reverse-colonization narrative by… Eastern European Jews “invading” London. “Those who have studied Stoker���s original text detect clues to suggest that in many cases this villain stands in for the threatening masses of eastern European immigrants, many of them Jews, who migrated to London.”

—They Walk Among Us; Vampire and Immigration in Victorian London

What’s a nice Jewish girl to do if she loves vampires?

The usual way to deal with it is to make sure your vampire isn’t Jewish–make him Catholic, or Mormon, or almost anything else. And I see that. But sometimes, rarely, people go in a different direction.

We’re getting to the point where people are starting to write books about Jewish vampires, some of them apparently without knowing the baggage. Cassandra Clare (who is Jewish) had a Jewish vampire character, Simon, who “plucks the cross out of the hands of someone trying to ward him away nonchalantly with the remark of ‘wrong religion.'” David Carrico has a book based on the famous prohibition against consuming blood in the Bible. Lavie Tidhar has HebrewPunk. Tidhar is apparently well aware of what he’s writing against. I was uncertain whether Carrico realized that or not (although I believe his book was well-intentioned).

I would also be remiss if I didn’t link Kaz Rowe’s Bram Stoker and the Fears that Built Dracula here. Particularly the section on Dracula as a reverse colonization narrative, in which the white majority fears the influx of the Eastern European menace that will change their blood. See my blog post on 19th Century Jewish London for more on those Eastern Europeans.

Special shout-out to Blood Relatives, in which a Jewish vampire discovers he has a daughter. Francis isn’t particularly religious–he’s culturally Jewish and swears a lot in Yiddish. It’s cute!

In short: I’m not the first person to write a Jewish vampire, nor even the first person to do so sympathetically. I’m certainly not the first person to make the vampire the protagonist. (That was either Anne Rice or the author of Varney the Vampire.) But I love a good moral inversion retelling, and vampires are too juicy a metaphor to pass up forever. Hopefully I did okay!

See also: Thoughts on writing vampires. The relationship between vampires and religion goes all the way back to their Eastern European origins. Those who turned their back on the Eastern Orthodox church often became vampires when they died, which obviously includes “witches” and heretics, but where does that leave Jews? I’m not going to go as far as the woman on Bluesky who once said “EVERYTHING about vampires is a reference to Jews, especially blood libel,” but she’s also not 100% wrong.

I love this review!

From Junia on NetGalley:

When I started reading this book, I knew it was a vampire story, but I didn’t expect to find the most original vampire story I’ve ever seen.
The story is told through three characters: Abraham, a Jewish vampire who loves animals; Ludwig, an asexual vampire friend; and Destiny, Abraham’s wife, a human, vegetarian, and veterinarian. We follow their lives in the past and present.
I loved the story and especially the pets that participate in it.🐱 🐶

You can view her post on Instagram here and get the first four chapters as a PDF here.

My Arisia Panels

Are you going to Arisia? I am!

Faiths of Fantasy and the FutureJanuary 17, 2025, 5:30pm

Harvard Square, Duration: 60 mins

How can writers incorporate contemporary or invented belief systems into fantasy or future worlds, without replicating cliches about clergy, faith, and spiritual practice?

Anne E.G. Nydam, BH Pierce, Greer Gilman, Katherine Villyard, Walter H. Hunt (moderator)

Broad Universe Rapid-Fire ReadingJanuary 18, 2025, 1:45pm

Porter Square B, Duration: 60 mins

Come discover your new favorite writer as members of Broad Universe read short excerpts from their work. Each writer has just a few minutes to show you what we���re capable of! We offer chocolate and the chance to win prizes. Broad Universe is an international organization that supports women and other non-privileged gender writers, editors, and publishers. 

Anne E.G. Nydam, Carol Gyzander, Clara Ward, Dianna Sanchez, E. C. Ambrose (moderator), Katherine Villyard, Kathryn Sullivan, LJ Cohen, Randee Dawn, Sarena Straus

I hope to see you there! Come say hi to me!

Reedsy Discovery

Do you want to read a GREAT REVIEW of Immortal Gifts AND the first chapter? Head over to Reedsy Discovery and check it out!

https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/imm...

New year, new giveaway!

Sad because you didn’t win last month’s Goodreads Giveaway? I have you covered!

I’m giving away another 100 copies of Immortal Gifts because IT’S ALMOST HERE!!!

Go! Enter!

Year in Review

Yeah, one of those. ����

I queried my novel.
Yeah! I started in January and kept going for half a year. It was an interesting experience, but the next book is not really something they will be interested in. I’ll keep them in mind for my next standalone.I fully edited my novel!
I had a copy edit, two sensitivity reads, and a proofread. (I also had other structural edits, but I did that last year, before I queried.)I formatted my novel!
If you care, check out my formatting posts here and here. I attended Worldcon in Glasgow, read from Immortal Gifts, and caught COVID. Do NOT recommend. Er. Do not recommend COVID. Worldcon was great!I set up my shop, which currently has one product (okay, no, it’s one book in a variety of formats) but that will be changing soon! (Actually, Immortal Gifts is already there but the links are hidden so only I can see them. This is because unlike the retailers, my shop takes your money right now and gives you the book later. I thought people would find this confusing.)Did I mention that I was on the Functional Nerds podcast? (I did! Earlier today!)

So, yeah.

All in all, I feel a lot less “don’t let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya” about 2024 than I did about, say 2020 or 2021. I will say that I feel very… I spent my misspent youth in fandom, and this year has felt like being in a fandom of one or two (bless you, Joy–my alpha reader) and I’m ready to be able to squee about things publicly without fear of spoilers. ����

ME on the Functional Nerds podcast!

I’m SUPER EXCITED to be on the Functional Nerds podcast with Patrick Hester and Tracy Townsend. If you don’t know about the Functional Nerds podcast, well, they’re SO MUCH FUN and you should check out their other episodes as well!

Go! Listen!